yup im on my 3rd phone. new to zune, and i could also NOT find a way to restore from a backup that i KNOW it has. Annoying. basically had to re-do both my replacement phones. its something that really needs to be addded. and added in an obvious spot ;)

The backup in Zune only restores your phone to a previous software version. In other words, when you do a software update in Zune, it saves your settings so it can restore the old software if necessary. A backup of all settings/programs is definitely need in WP. WebOS did it over the air.

On the iPhone, whenever you would sync the device, it would make a back up image that could be restored at anytime if you chose to. This is not the case for the Windows Phone.

The only time you can do this, however, is when you have done a device update. This is a feature I would LOVE to have back. I miss this about the iPhone that I had. If I ever had my device swapped for warranty, or bought a new one, I could just sync one last time before I would get the new one. Here's hoping soon!

Actually you can do it on a Mac using Connector. I've done it. I don't recommend it because you're basically restoring more than data from a phone you exchanged for some reason (i.e. something was wrong with it). It's not trivial to do and if you're not comfortable with MacOS filesystems it gets a little twisted. But it can be done. And I imagine that some similar manipulations could possibly be used with Zune on a PC. I just haven't had time to determine if it's feasible. Oh and gapost your comment is true when you do a software update. It's possible to do a backup anytime you want. And when you do, it creates a backup of your phone as it exists at the time of the current backup. So technically you could do a backup of your phone, do a reset, then restore your phone. I've done it a bunch of times and when the restore is done, the phone will be just like it was at the time of backup except that your media will have to be resync'd (i.e. podcasts, videos, music and the like). Contacts, apps, settings will be restored.
-joe-

Had 'em all. Every iPhone since day one, Androids out the ****.
DVP, Lumia 900, now a Yellow 920. Windows Phone is elegant, simple. Nuff Said.Some Stuff

Actually you can do it on a Mac using Connector. I've done it. I don't recommend it because you're basically restoring more than data from a phone you exchanged for some reason (i.e. something was wrong with it). It's not trivial to do and if you're not comfortable with MacOS filesystems it gets a little twisted. But it can be done. And I imagine that some similar manipulations could possibly be used with Zune on a PC. I just haven't had time to determine if it's feasible. Oh and gapost your comment is true when you do a software update. It's possible to do a backup anytime you want. And when you do, it creates a backup of your phone as it exists at the time of the current backup. So technically you could do a backup of your phone, do a reset, then restore your phone. I've done it a bunch of times and when the restore is done, the phone will be just like it was at the time of backup except that your media will have to be resync'd (i.e. podcasts, videos, music and the like). Contacts, apps, settings will be restored.
-joe-

Could you go thru the steps then as this could be quite useful to a few people. Did you do this to a new device? Same device? Same type of device?

Could you go thru the steps then as this could be quite useful to a few people. Did you do this to a new device? Same device? Same type of device?

Yes, please tell us how to do a complete backup on a pc. I heard there was a way over on XDA-Developers but that was with an unlock and it was a little complicated.

update: I did some more reading and it looks like the backup can be done on stock roms, but not custom roms (I'm using one). And, it's not that simple, but apparently, a complete backup can be done, except for the media files. This method is basically the backup that zune does when it is doing an update on your phone. The excellent developers at xda-developers figured this out and thanks to them.

i have used this method/tool from the XDA-Developers Forum. It does backup and restore the phone completely and I have been doing a backup of my phone pretty much every week. This works only on one phone. you cannot replace the device and use the old phone's back up to restore on to the new one.

Yup saw that tool from XDA for Zune on Windows. Seems to work just fine. The method that I'm using is manual. You have to move everything around yourself. It's not difficult just a pain. I'm using Lion (10.7.3). Haven't tried it on earlier MacOS versions. In the Finder choose the "Go" menu. While it's dropped down hold down your "Option" key. You'll see the menu item "Library" appear. Choose it. When the Finder window opens look for the "Application Support" folder. Open it. Now look for "Windows Phone 7 Connector" folder. Open it. Look for the "Devices" folder. Open it. There will be folders with cryptic hex numbers for each separate WP7 devices you have. You've got to open each folder to figure out which one is for what device you want to mess with. Open that folder and inside you'll see a "Backup" folder. That's the most current backup of your device. Any other folders other than that "Backup" folder are old backups. I'd compress that "Backup" folder and move it to a safe place out of the devices folder. Now close all those folders up, run Windows Phone Connector, hook up your device and hit the "Create Backup" button. It'll make a new backup. You can move that "Backup" folder from one device folder to another to restore a backup to the same type of device (i.e. one Lumia 900 to another). I've done it. But I don't recommend doing it. If you traded in say a Lumia with a problem for a new one, you may just move the problem from your old phone to the new one. However this method is fantastic for restoring the same device if you had to do a hard reset for some reason or another. Remember though, it doesn't backup/restore your media. You must do that through iTunes/iPhoto and Connector. Hope this helps someone out. But be careful. There's a reason Apple made you take extra steps to get to the "Library" folder. ;)
-joe-

Had 'em all. Every iPhone since day one, Androids out the ****.
DVP, Lumia 900, now a Yellow 920. Windows Phone is elegant, simple. Nuff Said.Some Stuff

To restore your phone, you must be setting it up for the first time (in the case of a new phone) or be resetting your current phone. During Setup, use the same Microsoft account to sign-in, and you’ll be asked whether you wish to start fresh or restore your phone’s settings from a backup. If you choose to restore, the backup will download and be applied to the device. Likewise, it will automatically download any apps you had previously installed.
:-)